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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2014 at 3:00 pm and is filed under NZ Politics.
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To be fair, I’d bet it ain’t seen too much use over that last couple of years…..speaking from experience, I’ve always found wanking regularly at work makes you absolutely buggered for the rest of the day

And that is how I look at everything that councils spend. Every dollar they spend is taken from ratepayers. Trouble is dicks like Len Brown think that the council is his personal fiefdom to do with what he wants.

i’ve always found wanking regularly at work makes you absolutely buggered for the rest of the day

Ah, now I get it! Try just once!

That might explain why Len didn’t have the energy to walk to either of the two gyms that a quick google reveals are just up the road. According to google maps, the YMCA is 550 m away and The Atrium Gym 450 m away. I guess he was just plumb tuckered out after tossing off over the ratepayers’ furniture.

These left-wing leeches are not to be trusted with others’ money. If ever they get into positions where they can personally indulge themselves at ratepayers’, taxpayers’, or unionists’ expense, they do so . . . to excess.
This Lecher arsehole must go, and for God’s sakes Aucklanders, go for the bastard’s throat on this one.

Words are beginning to fail me in describing this revolting little shit stain Brown. OK, not a great decision to get his wee gym, but the utterly shameless arrogance in the point blank refusal to comment is extraordinary. I guess because he didn’t have some bullshit justification worked out.

No doubt he would have thrust his chin out, adopted the North Sea cod look and just said no. What a frightful, revolting and despicable little turd.

His head of communications… …said the mayor used the equipment two or three times a week and it enabled him to spend more time on community engagements and other work than if he was going back and forth to the gym.

The loathsome Mayor should behave like the other 99.9% of busy execs who manage to get up earlier in the morning and do their ‘gym work’ before they hit the office, rather than bugger off for an hour during the day. I can’t imagine Brown having too many ‘community engagements’ scheduled for, say 6am – unless he had an ‘appointment’ arranged with Ms Chuang!

The arrogance of the man is staggering.

And equally staggering is the fact this was picked up by the Hoorald!! 😯

You misunderstand the real purpose of the dumbell of which Len only had one that was to increase the size of his left arm which was only 50% of the thickness of his right arm which was 50% of the thickness of his head – go figure, any puns are intended.

Nothing to do with the availability of alternative facilities and everything to do with the hubris of many of our “representatives” (of which Brown is merely by far and away the worst example) feeling they are above mixing with the hoi polloi and deserving of being hermetically sealed off from us.

Yes, Key, Cunliffe et al share the Parliamentary gym, but they’d be better off – and so would we – if they were told to go to the nearest public facility. That way, while she was lacing up her trainers, Judith Collins could have asked a couple of ordinary people about this idea she had to shill for a company in which her partner had an interest. Or Cunliffe could have tried out speaking like “one of the bros” to a much smaller audience. Both would no doubt have been told to get on their bikes, as it were, and embarrassment thus avoided.

“were installed in a small room”
If is a gym for Len Brown, then it would be a very very small room.
.
I have met the guy – I didn’t realise he was the mayor at first and thought it was a demented grinning dwarf who wouldn’t leave me alone.

Why the down ticks for Mighty_Kites? He/she makes a valid point.
Do MP’s and staff pay for the use of their gym? If not, then it is no different to Len Brown.
(And before igm goes on another incoherant rant, no I can’t stand Len Brown)

Bros – I am disappointed with the comments here….he works for Auckland 24 X 7. Even while working out in the gym, he keeps thinking about Auckland and the Jafas. So move on, the $5200 given by Jafas is a worthwhile investment…..

bc: The taxpayers are not paying for a personal gym for John Key (or any other MP). The parliamentary gym is available to ALL staff, even the lowest plebs (I myself used the gym when I worked there).
The article is about how ACC has built a personal gym just for Len Brown.

Rex: You must have inhaled in a load of Winston’s doctrine during your reign as his right hand man, as Collins did no wrong, and you for one should know it.

When I aligned myself with Winston, he was the kind of politician who busted others’ baubles. Now he sits round on his own.

As for Collins, as an MP and especially as a Minister you simply avoid having anything to do with boosting a business in which you or those close to you have a pecuniary interest, or you’re a dimwit. Or – as is the case here – so suffused with your own self importance that you believe the perceptions of ordinary people don’t matter. Either way you’re unfit for office – not because you’re corrupt, but because you’re an idiot or a megalomaniac.

But that wasn’t my point. My point was that, before sticking their heads into the slipstream of excrement heading off the fan, MPs could road test their stupider ideas on a small sample of the public… if only they’d deign to speak to them occasionally.

best place for Len is in a private gym working out on his own. the woman of Auckland should be allowed to work out in your everyday run of the mill open to the public gym without him leering at them…..

So did you pay to use the parliamentary gym, greenjacket? If not, then it is just an enforced taxpayer funded indulgence.
(I thought you guys were into user pays – or is it just user pays for others)
Anyway, I digress – what’s the difference between a taxpayer funded gym freebie (assuming you don’t pay for it), and a ratepayer funded gym freebie?
If it comes down to numbers using it, then all you are talking about is economies of scale. The principle is the same.

Len’s behaviour shows him to be a narcissist and an elitist. He does not want to be equal with everyone else – he sees himself as better than most, and therefore deserving of private gyms and more than one woman. He ‘deserves’ to be the mayor of Auckland, because in his mind he is worthy of that position, just as he thinks he is ‘worthy’ of patting the butts of any female he can, he’s doing them a ‘favour’ giving them his attention, in his mind! – and any mistakes people might think he makes are mere ‘slip ups’, but should never impede on his advanced right to glory. He might say he’s one thing, believes in equality and all that, but a socialist is something he is definitely not, Len Brown can never be equal to the rest, not being so god damn superior in his own mind.

Rex: Are you pushing the Labour barrow for your friend Mallard? Your rhetoric would show such a devious move obvious. Maybe you should have taken a little more of Michael Laws’ wisdom on board when you had the opportunity!

The only reason he has a personal gym is so he doesn’t have to go out into a public place like the local gym because where ever he goes now he cops shit from people.
What a joke his having not enough time to go to a gym up the road. He had enough time before to go down the road for SEXERCISE. He is an absolute disgrace to Auckland. How much more of our money is he secretly spending or getting spent on himself. He certainly doesn’t need a credit card when the money he wastes comes straight out of our pockets ” The Ratepayers”.

It is no surprise DPFs’ faithful band of malcontents would prefer Brown to spend $9 mil (or was it 19mil) on a DPS for ‘protection’ on a once a month 600 meter limp through Parnell .
Complete with official photographer of course .

The Beehive (where the parliamentary gym is housed) was designed in 1964 and the Beehive built between 1970-79.
The parliamentary gym houses some exercise machines (treadmills, bikes, rowers and a couple of resistance training machines). It also has some free weights, medicine balls, mats etc. All exercise classes held in the gym are user-pays. Parliamentary staff who go to the exercise classes are not subsidised and must pay for themselves. The classes are run by qualified instructors who come in from outside the gym, and are not contracted by Parliamentary Services.

From the outside looking in, it would seem a simple thing for MP’s, Minister’s and Parliamentary staff to skip down the road to the closest gym for a hour, however in reality, it is impractical. When the House is sitting Minister’s staff are practically tied to their Ministers and generally do not have the flexibility or time to get away. This means that without the option of exercise on site they could potentially go for weeks without getting any exercise. Many staff are in at 6 or 7am and are often there till 8 or 9 at night sometimes later (as I can attest having done it). You may say, well lot’s of people don’t get any exercise – this is true but it may also be their choice, and they are possibly not working all of those hours every day so have some spare capacity to get to an outside gym.

Minister’s diaries are fully subscribed and they generally don’t have time to wander down the road to partake of another gym’s services (although I can say I do know of one Minister who does use an offsite gym simply because it is located right next to their Wellington accomomdation when they are required to be in town when the House sits. They go to the gym at 6am then head into the office. Another I know pays for a Personal Trainer and does their session at the Wellington accomodation at 5am twice a week (when in town for the House to sit) .

When Ministers are flat out so are their staff, advising them. The nature of parliament is that you NEVER know when a crisis is going to break or when your Minister is going to call you on the Blackberry or in to advise them on an issue – sometimes you can be running three or four issues at once. This is on top of the general work that needs to be processed. If you can use the parliamentary gym and are called back by the Senior Private Secretary or Political Advisor or Press Secretary, then it’s a short walk of a few minutes as opposed being halfway down town. I’ve been called out of class there, so it does happen.

MPs and Ministers often use the gym about 11pm at night. The House sits till 10pm and then there can be further meetings either with the PM, or colleagues. When the House is not sitting MPs are in their electorates and pay for the use of private gym facilities themselves (if they use one).

I’m not sure if any of the city gyms are open this late, but if so it’s not conducive to exercising having to pack up and leave the building to exercise at that time of night. Having a gym on sight at least acts as an incentive to try to keep healthy. It’s about practicality for people to be able to function for long hours for weeks on end, just like having a couple of cafe’s on site too.

I’m not sure if any of the city gyms are open this late, but if so it’s not conducive to exercising having to pack up and leave the building to exercise at that time of night. Having a gym on sight at least acts as an incentive to try to keep healthy. It’s about practicality for people to be able to function for long hours for weeks on end, just like having a couple of cafe’s on site too.

Right … the public guys are for common people, the tax payers and the like… The elite .. they get their own paid for by the tax payers who use the public gyms.

Keep spinning … Perhaps Unite union members could have also had a private gym… if their elite leader had spent their PAYE on such a thing rather than campaigning for Labour !

Just my opinion Burt, having worked in the precinct. I have no control over the fact a gym was built on site. And I have paid for all my classes there. It’s just pragmatic to use that gym rather than a city gym late at night. It’s there, it’s not going to be bulldozed anytime soon or turned into offices, so people might as well make use of it rather than letting it go to waste. If there had been a gym membership imposed I would have paid that for the use of the gym. But that then would be double dipping by Parliamentary Services. People pay taxes for all sorts of things whether they like it or not, and don’t necessarily get the use of them, because we don’t have perfect redistribution of wealth. Not that I am advocating any kind of socialist government that thinks taxpayers are nothing more than cash cows and is always willing to use other people’s hard earned money – I couldn’t be further from it! I favour a flat tax – if people have to be taxed at all.